Saturday, April 3, 2010

An afternoon in Salzburg

No skiing for me today. I rather discover new places. So I decided to go catch a train to Salzburg. But I was a little late so I had 40 minutes to enjoy the morning sun and a coffee with cake in town :-)

There was a small market in the centre of Zell am See.

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The views from the train were often beautiful.

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I made it to Salzburg fine and walked to the old city. I came across a nice little park.



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I sat down at this fountain a bit. Just like I used to do at the fountain on Victoria square in Adelaide.

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My guide for the day.

Salzburg is known because Mozart was born there. But in this house another famous person was born...

... Doppler.

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I walked over a bridge to get to the other side of the old town.

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View towards the city from the bridge. Up at the top is the famous castle but it was so busy I didn't wanna go in.

The street where little Mozart walked.

And there it is, Mozarts birth-house. It is... yellow. And there are hordes of tourists swarming around...

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Cathedral.

People playing chess like at the Max Euweplein in Amsterdam.

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This house looked old but the painting was well maintained.

Plenty of beefaroni in this town.

And then it was time to go home again.

Friday, April 2, 2010

ChipSki day 2

Looking out of the train window around 7AM after 4 hours of sleep.

Austrian trains are very similar to German trains.

As we drove closer to our destination we passed a lot of little Apls-villages. Very picturesque.

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It was funny to see the sharp line between clear and snowy ground.

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We had to wait in Worgl for one hour to swap locomotives.

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Not our locomotive but still... hehe.

The guys I share a train compartment with. My colleague Sylvester and his mate KlaasJan.

And also my colleague Norbert.

Austrian cottage.

Another view.

Another view.

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Final destination: Zell am See!

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One hour after arrival we were all geared up for some skiing, including yours truly.

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We walked from the hotel to the ski-lift. It was not cool, I hate ski-boots. However, the view from the lift was stunning. The ferris wheel at Dam-square at home has nothing on this lift!

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I was in a class for two hours. I only fell once about 15 minutes before the end. I had to take off my skis and I called it a day. I really liked the class but the walking in those boots takes away a lot of the fun. I don't think I'll be doing more skiing.

Apres ski. Not my thing to be honest.

On my way down to dinner I ran in to Klaasjan and Sylvester who went for a swim.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

ChipSki day 1.

This magical wrist band will get me free food and drinks the next couple of days in Zell am See, Austria.

Blizzard pulled a few April's fools jokes today. The armory was showing every character as a walrus...

In the meantime George was showing something to colleagues. Personally I find it looks a bit dodgy but that could be me...

Another Blizzard April's fool joke: The EPEEN.

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At work, copius amounts of pizza and other food were being delivered between 16:30 and 17:30. Around 18:00 the busses left to take us to Central Station.

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It was all very... yellow.

Yellow was just everywhere.

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We waited for our Alps=express train that would take us to Zell am See, Austria.

There it is!

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10 wagons we occupied. This was the bar wagon.

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It stayed busy theree until closing time at 1AM. People went to sleep pretty right after.

Except for our cabin where I was teaching my cabin-mates the fine art of poker *grin* (I won 3 tournaments in a row that night).

My colleague Sylvester has ways of getting money to play more poker.